FOLLOWING outstanding performances at the recently concluded ITTF Caribbean Hopes Table Tennis Training and Selection Camp, national Boys 11-and-under player Krystian Sahadeo has been selected to participate at the Continental Latin American World Hopes Training and Selection Camp, which will be held from September 18 to 23 in Asuncion, Paraguay.
Sahadeo is one of two Guyanese who participated at the Caribbean event, the other being Jonathan Van Lange.
The Caribbean level of the training camp, which was held from August 14 to 19, was a first for the Caribbean region, and was conducted under the auspices of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), Latin American Table Tennis Union and the Jamaica Table Tennis Association for the 11 years-and-under participants.
The camp was held prior to the 2017 Caribbean Mini and Pre Cadet Table Tennis championships, and saw only the top two boys and girls from the participating countries being selected to move on to participate in the continental level of the camp.
The training will see the youngsters compete with the best players from South America, Central America and the Caribbean for possible qualification to the prestigious ITTF World Hopes Week & Challenge.

The Hopes Programme is one of many ITTF development initiatives which target the global reach and overall growth of table tennis. The number one goal is to encourage National Associations to run talent identification programmes and also to promote and work with young talented players for future success and growth.
Training and selection camps are held at the national, regional and continental levels before moving to the world edition.
The ITTF and Latin America Table Tennis Federation have now brought the Caribbean in line with the rest of the world in terms of the format used to select World Hopes players. This was done in line with ITTF’s new philosophy of developing the athlete with overall attitude, potential for growth and not just talent.

So performance at the camp selection competition ranked 65% of the marks, while talent, attitude, discipline, potential for growth, technical ability, among other attributes, accounted for 35 percent in the assessment of the players.
Sahadeo’s selection will now see him follow in the footsteps of his countryman, 2016 Caribbean 11 years-and-under Boys champion Kaysan Ninvalle, who qualified last year for the ITTF Latin Hopes camp in Peru, and went on to win a bronze medal, as well as national Women’s champion Chelsea Edghill who was selected in 2012.
Special mention was made of Krystian’s accompanying teammate at the camp, young debutant Jonathan Van Lange, who also played well, putting up a good run. He came up against the more experienced players from the Dominican Republic.

Kenard Sahadeo, father of Krystian who accompanied the team to the camp, said he was very pleased with how the players adapted and performed at the camp. He felt, though, lack of experience hampered Jonathan.
The rest of Guyana’s national Mini and Pre cadet members, who departed Guyana on Sunday morning on a Fly Jamaica flight en route to Jamaica, arrived safely and had their practice session which went well, according to national coach Linden Johnson.
The championships commenced yesterday with the Guyana 13 years-and-under Boys team of Kaysan Ninvalle, Isaiah Layne, and Jonathan Van Lange, being grouped with Jamaica A, St Vincent and St Lucia in the group stages for a place into the semifinals.